Helping a child recover from an eating disorder can be a long, scary, and expensive process. Long-term, live-in facilities can cost tens of thousands of dollars a month, and most insurance agencies don't cover any of the expenses for long-term care. Several New Jersey families have recently filed a class-action law suit against insurance companies, stating that they are violating the mental health parity act that requires biologically based disorders to be covered by medical insurance.

"The National Institute of Mental Health... says that 'several family and twin studies are suggestive of a high heritability of anorexia and bulimia' and that, while no gene has been found linking eating disorders with inheritability, 'scientists suspect that multiple genes may interact with environmental and other factors to increase the risk of developing these illnesses.'"

New Jersey's definition of "biologically based" disorders includes things like obsessive compulsive disorder, and depression, both of which are often linked to eating disorders and may provide further proof that the disorders are in fact biologically based. Read more at CourierPostOnline.com.

Labels: costs, insurance, treatment